On our trip with my family at the end of September last year, we enjoyed a pre-park opening breakfast at Garden Grill. If you're looking for a way to ride both Soarin' and Test Track or Frozen with little wait (all three are tier 1 attractions at Epcot, and so only one can be booked), snagging an 8 AM breakfast at Garden Grill when Epcot opens at 9 AM is the best way to do it. Besides giving you access to Soarin' before the rest of the crowds make it in to The Land Pavilion, you'll also enjoy one of our favorite breakfasts on property, and one of the few dining experiences we think is worth the cost for the characters, food, and ease of ride access you're paying for. Let's look at what you can expect with an early breakfast reservation at Epcot on a 9 AM opening day:

We arrived to the bag check at Epcot at 7:36 AM for our reservation. When I made the reservations 180 days out, there wasn't any availability for 10 people whatsoever, so I split us up (this is a great trick for finding large party reservations!). We had Garden Grill reservations for 6 people at 8:05 and 4 people at 8:10.

As you can see, there were very few people in line at bag check when we arrived. They did not begin checking bags until 7:42, and we were through bag check by 7:45.

We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge with my family in October for two nights (we stayed at Port Orleans Riverside for two nights as well). This resort is a deluxe resort but has one of the lower rates of that category, especially for a standard view room. There are many who consider AKL one of the best resorts at WDW, but we were not on board with that assessment. Although we enjoyed our stay, we have found other resorts, like Port Orleans Riverside, to better suit us. For some, however, AKL could be a great choice. Check out our review of each aspect of the hotel to help guide your decision:

Lobby

The lobby at AKL is definitely as grand as pictures make it seem--The tall ceilings and large windows are striking as soon as you walk through the doors. Like any Disney property, there are plenty of details that bring the theme together; my favorite is the chandeliers, which I think look like wings...or flowers?

Thanks to the wide range of temperatures that can occur November - February at Walt Disney World, it can be hard to know what to pack when your list for any other time of the year would be a simple as some shorts, sandals, and a whole lot of sun screen. Although it's always important to double check the weather before you leave in case the temperatures will be out of the norm for your trip, here's what we suggest you bring in your suitcase; this list is tailored for women, but it can be easily adjusted for men. If you're looking for a packing list for your park bag, you can find ours here!

There are endless possibilities of for fun when spending the day at the Magic Kingdom; some of the best rides, stage shows, and fireworks can be found at Walt Disney World's first park. But after several hours of hitting that ride itinerary hard, you may find yourself wanting to just sit back in some air conditioning and relax for a bit, maybe with a delicious snack in hand?

If you're wanting to plan some downtime into your Magic Kingdom itinerary, here are our favorite places to just hang out and actually take the time to enjoy all the magic the park has to offer!

The PeopleMover

This slow-moving ride that takes you on a tour of Tomorrowland is often overlooked; we think this has a lot to do with the fact that it is not given a wait time, so it is not listed on the My Disney Experience app. But if you're looking to take it slow for a little while and just take in the sights, there's no better place to go! You'll enjoy 10 minutes of continuous people-watching and will even get a glimpse inside Space Mountain. We especially love the Peoplemover at night, when Space Mountain and Cinderella castle are lit up in all their glory.

On my first solo trip to WDW in June of 2017, I stayed at the All Star Music Resort to save a little dough. Since I was by myself, I wasn't going to be spending much time in the room, so an All Star Resort seemed like the best choice. If you're considering staying at ASM, I've given a comprehensive review here so you can see if this resort would be right for you!

Rooms

Since my last stay at WDW had been at the Beach Club on our honeymoon (you can read my review of that resort here), it was a little bit difficult to form my judgment of All Star Music without too much bias. My immediate reaction up on walking in the room was of...well, disappointment. I had low expectations upon booking, but when you board the Magical Express all logical thinking just goes right out the window...

Anyways, once I reminded myself that I was paying 1/3 of what we paid for our honeymoon accommodations, I was able to properly assess the room. Although the decor at ASM isn't particularly striking, it isn't as gaudy as I anticipated, either. The wallpaper isn't my cup of tea, but otherwise it's pretty simple.

I was excited to see that I had been given a king bed, which is a handicap accessible room --I booked a preferred room but not one that was specifically designated as a king bed or accessible room. There are only three options when booking a room at ASM: Standard Room, Preferred Room, or Family Suite.

All three rooms could have views of a courtyard, parking lot, or pool. The preferred rooms are all in the Calypso building, which is closest to the lobby, and the family suite can sleep up to 6 and has two bathrooms and a sitting room.

I've had a lot of people message me asking for help enabling rich pins on Weebly; apparently it's just as difficult to find help doing it now as it was when I did it for the first time a few years ago!

Before I get in to how I set up rich pins with Weebly, let me explain what rich pins are first.

Rich pins are for business Pinterest accounts (you can switch your personal account to a business account here); they contain the title of the article and the source, as well as your favicon (the little image next to your name). They look a lot more professional than normal pins and are more likely to be re-pinned.

Pinterest's article on rich pins is highly unhelpful, so figuring out how to enable rich pins on Weebly when no articles I found mentioned it felt like I was venturing onto an untraveled path.

Fortunately, Weebly makes most things easy, and this was no exception. There are only a few short steps to this:

Pandora--World of Avatar truly is a world unto itself. It's beautiful, it's immersive, and it's home to two new rides that live up to the Disney standard. You could spend a whole afternoon just taking everything in, and if you have the time, we recommend doing just that; The Na'avi River Journey is visually striking, the tribal music show that pops up throughout the day is a lot of fun, the Satu'li Canteen menu takes an impressive step outside the standard Disney quick service menu, we could go on and on with all the Pandora has to offer. But if your time is limited and you can't spend half your day on the Pandora moon, here are the 5 things you can't miss.

1. Ride Flight of Passage

The GIANT wait Flight of Passage has been racking up each day is enough to turn any reasonably-minded person away. But this ride is THE most amazing thing I have ever experienced. Think Soarin', but more immersive, more impressive, more jaw-dropping. If there's only one thing you do in Pandora, it needs to be this.

To do it without waiting for 3+ hours, you need a fastpass, which means making sure you're prepared to book the second your fastpass window opens. If you can't get a FP, you have a few other options: rope drop the ride or wait until park closing. The ride hasn't been closing at capacity before park closing in the last few weeks like it had been the few weeks after opening, so if you can manage to stay awake late, get in line just before the park closes. You can save yourself precious park time by waiting to ride until the end of the night. Whatever option you go with, enjoy your ride on the back of a banshee!

Kona Cafe is a restaurant at the Polynesian Village Resort that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is located on the upper level and overlooks the lobby's resident Tiki-man, one of my favorite Walt Disney World icons.

Besides the food, the best things about Kona Cafe is that because the Polynesian is on the monorail line and the exit out to board the monorail is right next to the restaurant, it is a very good early breakfast option for a Magic Kingdom or Epcot day. The restaurant usually opens at 7:30 AM, so if you can manage to get an early reservation, you could potentially eat and still make it to Magic Kingdom in time for a 9 AM opening. On the reverse side, you could start your day rope-droping Magic Kingdom then make it to Kona in time for a late breakfast, which is served until 11:15 AM.